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Thursday, July 29, 2010

Reaping the Rewards

Weigh in this week was good! As I stood in line, I muttered something to the lady in front of me about how I'd be happy to lose just the 700 grams (1.54 lbs) I had gained last week. After what seemed like an hour of standing in line to weigh in, I finally got to the front. I paid my money, hopped on the scale and waited. Sure enough, I lost 700 grams. So, I'm back down to 135.8 kg (298.76 lbs) and back to 22.8 kgs (50.16 lbs) lost.

It's a good feeling, to know you have lost that much.

It's a good feeling, to know that you can really do this thing.

It's a good feeling, to feel your clothes getting bigger and bigger.

But. It can be very discouraging to look at the numbers and realise just how far you still have left to go. Very disheartening. It can make you want to give up, when you look at the numbers and do the math and realise how long this road can be.

So what can you do to make that road a little more bearable? What can you do to stop yourself from giving up, throwing in the towel and drowning your misery in fried foods and fat globules? How do pull yourself out of the depths of I-can't-possibly-carry-on-so-I'm-going-to-eat-my-fat-ass-weight-in-cookie-dough-ice-cream ?

Well, you could have someone slap you and demand that you pull yourself together immediately. Or you could blog about it and hope that you get enough encouraging comments to eradicate the ennui (which you totally would, because us bloggers are good like that!).

OR!

You could reward yourself!!

Little rewards along the way can boost you. Your self esteem, your confidence, your happiness levels...all boosted when you have a reward.

In the last while, I have bought myself new pants and a couple new shirts. I suppose you could think of them as rewards but I rather think that I bought them out of necessity. There's just so long I can wear my other pants before I find myself accidentally mooning some poor old gal while I'm at work. I hear they frown on that kind of behaviour in my job!

Clothing aside, as I'd have to buy them anyway, I began to think about how I could reward myself for hitting the 50 lb mark. Ideally, I'd like one of these pretty baubles:

That's a Pandora charm bracelet in case you weren't aware of their existence. The jeweler here in town has them (or ones like them) and you can buy charms for them for reasonable prices. I'd like to get one and buy a new charm for every 5 or 10 kgs. I'll be pricing them out this week.

So then I thought, well, I'll get my nails done.

Yeah right. Get my nails done so that the next time I'm helping some old girl shower, I can slice through her paper thin skin. That'll be fun to explain to the bosses. Plus, long nails interfere with my stellar typing skills.

In the end I decided, on a whim, to get my hair done. Not just cut, as I'd been planning for weeks, but coloured as well. And you know what?

I. Feel. Fantastic.

I do. And now I can look down this long road of mine, just a little bit further, and totally picture my next reward. And the one after that!

Oh you want proof? (Oh, I want to show off?)

Me, before (note, messy mop of naturally blond hair, no shape to it, usually worn in a ponytail):

(This pic was taken about 8 kgs ago)

Me, after (looking incredibly bored in the picture where I pose sans glasses):

I really encourage you all to reward yourself along the way. We're all working towards the same goal - to be fit & healthy. That in itself will eventually be the giant reward, the Oscar to our award winning performances. But it is important along the way to keep ourselves going.

For me, a couple of hours at the hair salon was enough. I came away feeling new, feeling refreshed, feeling....cute! For you, it could be something else. Figure out what it is, and do it!

If you're already doing it....how do YOU reward yourself?

**********

If you're a "fan" of Looking For My Feet on Facebook, then you may have noticed the challenges I've been posting lately. Rest assured, I am doing them too! Those 100 sit ups just about killed me the other day because I was left with 50 of them to do right before bed. OUCH! So join in!

Oh, I love rewards! For losing 80 pounds, I won my reward for a one-hour massage at the spa place. I booked my appointment yesterday and shall cash in on it in three weeks! If I can get to my Ultimate Goal Weight, it involves an immediate plane-trip to Las Vegas! (And...perhaps a belly button ring?)

Ohhh I am liking that bracelet!!!It is so hard when the scale doesn't show us what we want or need to see, but if you stay strong it will happen! I am struggling this week with the scale but I am convinced next week will be better!

Throughout my journey I never looked at how far I had to go, I only looked at how far I'd come. That made the pounds bearable... staring down needing to lose 105 pounds seemed impossible, but I can tell you now at 102.6 I've finally started looking ahead.